View sample pages : Anti Gallican Monitor, September 03, 1815

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Anti Gallican Monitor (Newspaper) - September 3, 1815, London, Middlesex
/Vs. 9*1 - Prweorf.) * Peace be to France, if France in pence permit * Tlic just and lineal cntranre to our own i * If not. bleed France-and Vvnce nerrnd to Heaven.**-w^M AKr�r�A*ft. HISTORY OF THE EMBASSY IN THE GRAND DUCHY of WARSAW, IN 1813. M� *>9 Pm.jDT, Archbishop of MecnttH, and then FlrtTtch Ambassador at Warsaw A work under the above title has recently made its appearance at Pari.*, which I consider one of the most interesting which has issued from the Press for a long time. The brilliant talents, and the high and splendid reputation of the author, as well as the distinguished rank which he held, and the opportunities which he had of forming the most correct opinion of Buonaparte himself and of his system, have induced me to give a translation of it for the information and amusement of the Readers of this Paper. I have already given an extract from the work (the characters of Buonaparti; and Ma'REt), which appeared in the Antigallt-can of the last and preceding Sunday. That extract was copied from the French Papers, but as I have now received the work itself, which has already gone through three editions in Paris, 1 shall proceed regularly with it, and intend giving, every day of publication, about the same quantity as that given this day, till the whole is finished. Haying been myself, as well as the Archbishop, about the person of Napoleon, and also having been employed in his service on missions of a political nature in that wry country, my experience, of course, must have enabled me. to appreciate duly such a work as the present. I have no hesitation in declaring that I have not seen a more correct or mote animated picture of the man and his system,, than that which has just come from the pen of the Archbishop, and I hope it may not be ascribed to vanity, when I say that in many respecta there wilt be found a great coincidence of opinion between this able writer and hiyself, as may be discovered in various parts of my different publications iil which I have had occasion to treat of Buonaparte ami of his system-^coincidence \i\ Opinion with this learned and very intelligent * titer is all lean presume to hoas�t--his style and manner are his own, and t.uch as must captivate, were even hia other katento for roanpobi� fion much inferior. It may be proper to say a few sverdo of the author historically > M. !>e PaAOT is descended from the itlustrU cus family of dg i�a Rochkfuvcavld. He emigrated rarly in the Ruvolution, but took the opportunity of returning to France under that species of amnesty which took place after Buo= 3japaute*3 usurpation. JBuon APAftn-'. took 'him Into his service as one of his Almoners, after he had ttssumed the imperial purple, and some time after, appointed hint Archbishop of Mec klik. He also employed him in various mutters relating to the church, and in 1812 he sent him to Poland in the character of Ambassador ; but in this last employment his services were not of that kind as to insure a continuation of Napoleon's favour. The Archbishop's ideas of hou-our and honesty were, I beiieve, far different from those of the vile instruments with whom he was obliged to associate. Napoleon was disappointed, and, shortly after, the Archbishop was recalled from his embassy, and on his am* val in Paris was immediately ordered into exile to his diottse. Oil the restoration of Louts XVIII. in ISM, the Archbishop was appointed Chancellor of the l*fvgion of Honour, and ten mouths after wag displaced, io order to make way for the Count de Bruges, a favourite of Monsieur. The particulars of the Archbishop's disgrace are given at the end of the work, and shall appear in the Antigullican in proper time fcndjdace, LEWIS GOLDSMITH. " The Emperor was caught, when in the ,Midst of a gloomy revetie, suffering these memorable words to escape %* One man less, �nd / would haw beta master of the world." What kind of man then can he be, wl.o, sharing i� wine measure the power of the Divinity, has been able to say to this torrent " Aon idis 0>n-J#?f*"-(Hither sbalt thou go, but no farthei.) j Where were hit artikft, hi� treasures, his means I of stopping this proud Ruler of France and of iSurope, who, seated on the wreck of thrones, of nations, and of Inns-with one foot steeped in blood, the other resting upon ruins, was, in imagination, rapidly advancing towards the limits of the world, and in his insatiable thirst for empire, was suffocated, if we may use the expression, in the universe. " That man was-� myself. According to this statement I must have saved the world; and furnished with this title, I might defy it to repay the service with a suitable return of gratitude. *' But far from me be the idea of arrogating to myself any such claims ! " Thu exclamation of the Emperor Napoleon, the assertions which he a thousand times repeated, that it was 1 who had destroyed the affairs of Poland ; that I never undo stood (cntcn-duj Poland,(an expression familiar to that Prince in common with all the Revolutionists, who have all o( them equally derived their language, as well as their ideas, from the dictionaries of the Revolution)-all these charges are, I assert, absolutely void of any foundation. The proofs of this shall be forthwith produced. These charges must he imputed in the first place, to the stute of mind of a Prince, who, ranking his own in-I tllibility amongst the most rigorous axioms of geometry, cannot be supposed to ascribe to himself any thing which in i^ lit cause his enterprises to {trove abortive-this, true of hint at all times, was doubly so at the time of his fust reverse of fortune, a time too when his sensibility was most deeply affected-a .everse of which his astonished sell-love and chagrin would not permit any other explanation than Jo charge those who had concurred in the action with hlutue.-Somebody must be the object of ceu-bure, and he alone who could point out that person was sure wot to name himself. In the second place, to that want of attention which he �hewed to that which was passing around him, as well as to the want of information from those whose duty it was, as we may cay, So hold him enveloped in it--'l�is requires explanation. The EmpkuoR is profoundly ignorant . even the nature of his quick mind, habitually turned to speculations of every kind, will never permit hiua to acquire real information ; he muses or si peaks, t$gits papers, and reado nothing ; his loquacity extends to every subject, but does not ruffer hi ire to examine any Mihject thoroughly. St in sufficient to have seen the JEMPrcaoti running ov��r a book or any writing in order to form an idea of that knowledge of itu contents which it is possible for him to acquire The leaves run through his hnn-ers-hts eyes run over every page, and after a very short lime the tsufo?tmiate composition is ubnort always thrown away with marks of contempt--with these general marks of disdain :-This book contains nothing hot atn? pid absurdities-the author is an ideologist--a Const if ii ani-a Jansen'm." This last epithet in the maximum of his abuse- With his head always in the cloud's winging his flight towards the Empireum, from that elevated point he thinks, as with an eagle's rye, to take a rapid view of the earth, which, when he deigns 6o tread, it must be with the step of a giant. ** Affairs do not go on in this manner, nor j-i information thus acquired by weak uiortal*-==�it is at best but the in� -sms of knowing things in the mass- that is to -nyp the way of not knowing them at all-than it is that the Empf.uor in neither acquainted with the me a or with the affairs* of his countrvo He pushes-he drag;* them forward, but he knows them not. Some views- some traits of discernment-some flashed of memory, compose almost the whole of his store of information ; as tome few pamphlets do the whole of his library. One must have been near his person-above all, must have travelled with him, in order to form an idea of a degree of ignorance which sometimes g?ves place �o the mofet extravagant expressions of contempt of in-dividual*, as welt as to the m�st gross stupid ig-norai ce of things. I h:;v� witnessed this on more than one occasion, and in proper time and pUce I shall t�ie men of superior minds-by such powerful talents every thing is done by wholesale, consequently every thing is done superficially. All the portraits are but mere sketches;-opinions respecting the characters of men result from-views more or less vague-one trait composes a character; no more time is to be given to etch. Such a government should be composed only of graces, inasmuch, as they alone do not claim time. To giant, to accept are so brief ! But woe to him who has need of time, of that universal agent of things here below ; above all if he has need of it for his justification, to remount to the eminence from which he has been precipitated! Availed, almost always as by a hurricane, overturned, broken, displaced without any of those previous warnings which are every where v\ e the safeguards of wretched human b' ingsp he remains stunned, trampled on to the very hint by a multitude which look down without fistonifihtrsent or pity, whilst he that bm over-thrown you pursues his con rue with le�p% mut bounds over those whom he raises, or whom \zr wounds by eh;mee-~*eondemnecl as you are, to �l�eu�| the rcm.'uns of a dishonoured existence in the anguishes of attempt, or in the scare la after reparation, which chance, much more than) reinonie, can ever obtain for you; unforfuuate are they with whom indifference is the observer and chance io the umpire. "* This species of distraction* doubtless very horrible, results from the immensity of the nf* fairs of France, and, above td|, from i2pj-:Ron5 asnl take thjeir station* by his wide, namely : terror and flattery,, The one is bis guard, the other his counsellor* Now It is no?, by the means of these that men are ei thev safely gu;vrdooi.iuttg0 when he became all-j>cwrfal, ttioutjht piop�r to veinovep on account of tht-if posaenRifli; qimtitu-B whirh should! have mrule i hem more prcrioua ia his ey*9, \ie found himself under restraint by rcasuii of tbriv reputation, by the iQUt'pcndenct' wluelf they had urcsirvt'd in the uthlst of the general elnvrry. He wan aj�pr�h�nsive thiit ihfy mi)(ht nhare his glory, an Civuse of their removal He could i�ol hear the near ap-� j pronch of talents ; N A Poi.kon had foi mi u�eeJ Wlial do i say ?-nay, eVety proscribing all i.Z�uu el! 1 h.v�n�el V.V* \^ Well then, it